Wednesday, November 05, 2014

The Retribution of Mara Dyer

For any of you unfortunate enough to follow me on twitter, you saw my progress through this book last night; it was riddled with expletives and lots of shouty capital letters. So I thought I'd give myself some to calm down (and sleep) before writing the review so it would be slightly more understandable than randomly interjected f-bombs everywhere.

Part of me didn't want to even start Retribution, because it's Mara's last book, and - insane and whacky as she is - I've come to be very emotionally attached to her. A much bigger part of me was so desperate to know that Noah was, in fact, still alive, that I couldn't wait the extra two days for it to be out in the UK, and bought it off US Amazon; it was my self-given present for finishing a piece of coursework.
Very much in the style of the previous books, Mara is awesomely creepy. I'm not sure what it says about me that I wasn't scandalised at most of the things she did, but I've accepted the slightly scary side of me a long time ago, and it was wonderful to see Mara learn to do the same. I wanted to cheer when she says she doesn't want to be cured; she does need to learn impulse control so she doesn't go around killing people for cutting in front of her in traffic, but her power is sort of awesome in a way that we truly appreciate in this book. There's this very specific scene I have in mind when I say this, but I don't want to spoil anything - I think it's pretty self-evident when you read the book, though, so you'll know what I mean.
I absolutely loved Jamie. He's the best friend to Mara, because he doesn't care; and because, deep down, a part of him kind of envies her ability, I think. Really deep down, so it doesn't affect his love for her, but does let him see past her ability to who she is - an assassin kitten, to quote the man himself.
There's a point, toward the end of the book, where the POV changes, and I shit you not, I was on the verge of tears. Much as I respect and admire Roth for the ending of Allegiant, it doesn't mean I wasn't instantly on the alert with that stuff. Which is stupid, because we all know Mara survives (I'm not counting this as a spoiler; we've all read the first book, we all know how it starts... It's just common sense) since she's telling the story in past tense. Still. Those were a tense couple of chapters, not gonna lie.
I also want to put it on the record that chapter 73 is forever my favourite of its' kind in YA literature, trumping even Jeri Smith-Ready's that she got a bag of cookies for two years ago. It was beautifully written, and I applaud Hodkin for it. Truly, truly, well done.

Some of you may be madly skimming this review for news of Noah. I'm not squeaking. I'm aware of the damage done on twitter, spoiler-wise, but I won't say anything here. Just go read it and find out for yourselves! ;)

All in all, I loved how the ending came full circle, ending with the beginning. It was neat and well orchestrated. Definitely worth the extra money paid in the pounds-to-dollars conversion!

Finished the book? Want some more Mara? You can find a link to the GIF Review of the book here!